Hi All- After reading another post on HR involved in training, I thought I would begin another post regarding the same topic but in a different light. I am currently in charge of an HR dept for a financial institution. My department includes HR and Training. Due to a merger, we are now restructuring and splitting HR and Training entirely. My staff and I are taking the training... as I have always worked in a combined department, I am really struggling with having "just training." The cool thing is I can recreate the department from scratch. We can create and deliver a multitude of programs. I am not concerned with the skills or knowledge of my people. I am confident in their abilities. What I am hung up on is how to classify my employees roles/ titles etc.
I have one "entry level" trainer/facilitator, and two people who have experience with course creation, development and delivery. One of these two is a more senior person in both length of history, responsibility etc.

Does anyone have job titles, descriptions or structural information for their areas? My thought is one person is responsible for delivery of basic new employee material, one is responsible for the next level of employee material and the third assists with development and design and delivers to higher level audiences.

This may sound like a very simple issue to some- but I am baffled! Help!

Do you expect this department to grow? Are you the Manager or is your higher level person a manager?
Is it necessary for you to box these people in to a specific funtion?....such as training delivery specialist or instructional designer? If not, they could all be Training Specialists. i.e. Training Specialist I, II, III, etc. This would allow them to be cross functional in design and delivery.

Just a few thoughts.

I am envious of your getting to start from scratch. What a challenge, but what possibilities too!

If you would like for your people to do both design and training, what about "Training and Development Specialist?"

However, in my experience "Instructional Designer" (my current title) has always come with at least some delivery- more Train the Trainer type stuff.

Personally, I think the fewer different job titles the better. Maybe just create levels (I,II, III) as Jonesie suggested. Sidenote- in my training department of 5, NONE of us have the same title... I think it sometimes confuses people in other departments, to be honest.

Why not ask the people themselves what they prefer to be called? In the grand scheme of things, it really doesn't matter what title a person has. It's competency in the job that's important. And a title tells you nothing about that. In some cases, experience tells you nothing either. A different title or classification for each one tends to promote competition and "protecting my territory" type thinking. Are they now going to be doing different jobs - I mean is it worth all the agony?

quote:

I think the fewer different job titles the better.

AMEN!